


I Only Want One Emotion

by AsagiStilinski



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Insomnia, Introspection, Late Night Conversations, Late at Night, M/M, Polyamory, Yami Yuugi | Atem has his own body
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-21
Updated: 2019-02-21
Packaged: 2019-11-01 17:31:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17871689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsagiStilinski/pseuds/AsagiStilinski
Summary: For the past few months, Seto Kaiba has been in a relationship with Atem, Yugi Muto, and Joey Wheeler, and although they've been some of the happiest months of his life, he can't help feeling frustrated by the fact that his constant distraction by the three has left him with work piling up far more than he's used toHe decides to use his insomnia as a good excuse to play catch-upToo bad his mind always finds a way to swirve back to the three morons sleeping in his bedCourtshippingwith a minor focus onRivalshipping





	I Only Want One Emotion

**Author's Note:**

> Mmm I don't know, just... something I felt like writing, hope you enjoy it <3
> 
> These are the types of notepads Seto has by the way https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0025/4758/1026/products/701ba423564bffd48fd0f3fc90ceff58.jpg?v=1536566080 they're by "Knock Knock"

His bed is crowded

He means it more figuratively than literally but it's not untrue either way

It's an _enormous_ bed, one easily capable of fitting several people, and it was certainly serving it's purpose now

Seto Kaiba had gone very quickly from sleeping entirely alone, to sleeping with a partner... and then another... and another... and a dog

He had somehow gone from being entirely alone, to having three lovers and a dog in less than a year

It was..... _overwelming_

He enjoyed it, he loved every creature sleeping in his bed, but it was alot to take in, especially in such a short amount of time, and even more especially for someone who had, until recently, only cared about himself and his brother

He had only felt obliged to give his attention to Mokuba up until recently, but now...

Letting out a slow exhale, he quietly rolled over on his other side, facing away from the window now and staring at the back of Atem's head in silence

He followed the line of his hair, down the back of his neck, over his shoulders, where his slender form vanished under the sheets

He found himself sitting up slowly, staring over the pharaoh's sleeping figure and making note of the other two, Yugi curled up facing the pharaoh, their hands tangled together contentedly, Joey's blonde mop of hair looking like a tornado-blown wreckage as he snored lightly, laying on his stomach with one arm dangling off the bed and the sheets wrapped around only one leg

The dog was sleeping in a ball, curled up in between Joey's leg and Yugi's back...

What a wreckage

Why did he feel _fond_ looking at this?

Shaking it out of his head, he glanced at the clock and wrinkled his nose

1:27 A.M.

Well, it was far from ideal, but...

He wasn't going back to sleep any time soon, he was sure, and he hadn't gotten nearly as much work done earlier as he had needed to

That was the biggest frustration of this entire _thing_ , this ... _mess_ that he dared to call a relationship

There were three and a half of them, all eating up his time, all devouring his attention, and his ability to get any real work done had plummeted

Sure, his health was better, he slept more, he felt happier, he was _enjoying_ life for once, and he wouldn't say his work was _suffering_

Far from it, he benefited from a creative aspect by having the three of them around, and he had their help when he needed it, all three of them worked for him now anyhow, but...

But it wasn't the same

It wasn't the same and that was unnerving and frustrating and he didn't know what to do

He felt like he was anchored down all of a sudden

Like he had been free and flying high before and now all of a sudden he was being held down and pinned to the floor

It was suffocating

He slid out of bed in silence, only raising the attention of the dog, who sleepily lifted her head, but ultimately went back to sleep, as he slipped out of the room, nose wrinkling in distaste at the chiming of the little dream-charms Yugi had attacked to the inner door-nob

_"They'll help you sleep,"_ he had said, and because they operated as something of an alarm system- quick to wake him if anyone tried o come in or out- he had allowed them

It hadn't had _anything_ to do with how much Atem's face lit up over the concept

Nothing to do with how Joey had been the one to insist putting them on the door instead of hanging them over the bed somewhere

The fact that all four of them seemed to be having less nightmares since Yugi brought them home last month was entirely irrelevant because hocus-pocus nonsense like that didn't work

He inhaled loudly, exhaled slowly, and squeezed his eyes shut, teeth gritting slightly

He made his way quickly down the hall, down two flights of stairs, and into his at-home office

The light stung his eyes when he first turned it on, but that was really just as well

He walked quickly to his desk, glad for the cold of the leather as he sat down in his office chair and immediately opened his laptop

He'd start by clearing out the emails that had been steadily piling up for the past few weeks, having not had the chance to get through them all yet

Then he'd look at sending out the registration form for the new tournament to his legal team so they could double check that he had covered everything necessary before posting it live

Then he'd look over the final three applications for the new assistant position that had opened up, reveiw the final five applications for the two new positions in his technology department, and look over the final twenty submissions for this season's new game productions, send any valid ones through to his selection committee, and then reveiw the revisions the beta team had sent him about his new VR game before signing off on them to be made

He also needed to look over that last bug report for Yugi's game that the smaller duelist had needed his help with, once they could get the bugs cleared up they could go into production and start on the marketing and promotion, decide on things like a release date and packaging, he'd definitely schedule some time to sit with Yugi personally and go over those details, they were always so overwelming for first-time creators and Yugi could benefit from his experience

Not to mention, he had always found those particular details especially fun to decide on, it would be nice to see Yugi's thoughts on what he wanted most for his first game, to help him refine them and choose them carefully...

If he could get the bug fixed then maybe he could even do that with him at lunch tommorrow, they could eat in his office, just the two of them....

And speaking of his office, he really had to make a note to remember to have the carpet cleaned again, Atem had brought the dog in yesterday morning and she had, no doubt, shed...

Sure she was a Yorkie, it wasn't like she shed _alot_ but she still must have left _some_ hair and if he had any business partners with dog allergies that would end badly...

Sighing quietly, he grabbed the little "Deal With This" memo pad sitting on the corner of his desk so he could scribble the reminder down

The "Deal With This" pad had lines or writing, as well as little check-boxes with things such as "Immediately | By End Of Day | Within A Week | Or Delegate" etc on them

Joey had bought an absolute crap ton of other "amusing" notepads in similar style back in the fall, including things such as "Make Shit Happen", "Office Citation", "Why I Must Have Sex With You", "Apology", "Reality Checklist", "Nerd Alert", and other ironic little notes that seemed to perfectly blend passive aggressiveness and humor

He thought they were funny

And the sad part was that Seto actually used them

Wile he had Joey on the brain, he needed to remember to tell the loser about the job he had signed him up for

Apparently some private detective in Tokyo was attending a small-time tournament- small enough that Kaiba Corp didn't feel the need to bother with it- to investigate something or other and needed a credited duelist with him as his excuse for being there

Joey had seemed like the perfect option, so Seto had signed him up for the following weekend, he just had to actually _tell him_ about it

He'd tell him at breakfast, he just needed to give him the note to actually _be_ at breakfast and not be running late in the shower like he usually did

Now where had he put that "You Suck" pad...?

Rubbing his head, he opened his top desk drawer and started sorting through the various notepads, mildly embarrassed that he even had all of these rediculous things, and grumbling as he sifted around

Ah, there was the "Don't Kill The Kids" pad, that one was for dog-sitters and new house staff who may attend to the dog

Speaking of, he wondered if they would need a dog-sitter for the first week of April...

He and Atem were signed up for a "Duelibrity" tournament in Hawaii that week, they were all free so they had decided to make a vacation weekend of it

The tournament had virtually no stakes outside of bragging rights, just a televised tournament for charity that pit real duelists against C-list celebrities

Or paired them up

Actually, Seto wasn't too clear about that....

Not that it mattered though, he and Atem would surely crush any competition they had

And he was looking very forward to finally dueling Atem in public again

That was something they hadn't done since Battle City....

Sure they had their private duels all the time and they dueled _together_ every once in a wile in public, but the last time they'd gone against eachother in a tournament was so long ago....

He shook his head free of the thoughts, grabbed the "You Suck" pad, and absently made a note on his "Deal With This" pad to ask Yugi if they should take the dog to Hawaii with them

....

Or maybe he should decide that himself, he had a "Pros vs Cons" pad around here somewhere

On the one hand, she suffered from separation anxiety- and even Seto himself wasn't exactly the happiest about leaving her for a full weekend- ~~so he was attached to the dog, big deal~~ \- but on the other hand, traveling on a plane would be so stressfull for her, and they wouldn't even be at the hotel half the time, they'd be dueling, so wouldn't it be _more_ stressfull for her to be in a strange environment full of noise and weird people by herself all day?

And he wasn't even sure if they were staying longer than the weekend yet

Sure the reservations were for three days, but knowing his boyfreinds, they'd want to explore, having never been to Hawaii before

Joey would almost _certainly_ want to surf

Yugi would want to go sight-seeing

Atem wouldn't leave there without the chance to go to atleast _one_ museum or aquarium or some such....

Maybe they should turn it into a week, but then if they did that, that would be four extra days away from work, and hadn't Seto _just_ been complaining about how little work he had been getting done lately?

Suddenly reminded of why he was here, he urgently glanced at the clock

_2:36_

_"DAMMIT!!!!"_

He had just.... wasted over an hour.... doing what!?

Not a single email answered, not a moment of work done, he hadn't even turned his laptop on yet!

This

_This_ right here was exactly why he had problems!

This was exactly what had kept him up earlier!

Somehow everything always spun back down to those three and it was infuriating!!

Swallowing tightly, he hurriedly turned his laptop on and started scribbling down the reminder notes he needed, staring anxiously down at the mess of notepads and pens that he had scattered across his desk and feeling suddenly disorganized

Pinching the bridge of his nose, he made the decision to just double-task

He'd answer an email, then make a note, then answer an email, and so on and so forth

It was the only reasonable way to go about this

Rushing to pull his emails up, he started scribbling down the other notes he needed to make, even writing down "Organize notepads" at one point

_Anything_ to make himself feel more organized and sane and stop feeling so out of sorts....

Ok, first email, here we go-

_Yugi Muto has sent you a card!_

....

Right....

Yugi ... Yugi did this sort of thing

He left little "Good Morning" notes for everyone...

For Atem, he hid little 100-yen-a-pack greeting cards in his jewlry box

Joey got a little collage of text messages with cute animal gifs attached to them

And Seto received a daily e-card emailed to him

Yugi always set them up at some point the night before, no one knew when, he just .... magically seemed to do it without anyone being aware of it

Seto was tempted to open it now

He knew it was stupid, they were just corny little cards with a line or two of "Good morning!" messages on the inside

They weren't special, they weren't expensive, they weren't _worth_ anything

..

Except that they were

They were special, and valuable, and worth everything, but they were little tokens that told him he was loved, that Yugi cared about him, that he took the time out of his evening- even if that time was less than five minutes collectively- to send him these little cards in the hopes of making him smile

And that was one of the most valuable things anyone had ever done for him, even if they cost absolutely nothing

The clock caught his attention

_2:46_

"AGH!!"

"Seto?"

Immediately, his attention snapped up, eyes narrowing as the smaller duelist in question opened his office door, head tilting as he stepped inside and shut the door behind him

"What's going on? Why are you up?"

And he was still wearing those rediculous pajamas with the little daisies on them that matched with Atem's...

_Matching pajamas_

Part of Seto wanted to gag everytime he saw them, the other part had the sneaking suspicion that he would be finding himself in a pair before the year was over and he couldn't... quite be upset at that prospect

....

No, no, no no no no no he was NOT going to let that happen, he was NOT going to become a Norman freaking Rockwell painting!!

~~Isn't there a Lana Del Rey album about that?~~

"Seto...? Rosie, you're really starting to worry me, what's wrong?"

Ah... _Rosie_.... when had he started letting Yugi call him that?

At one point Yugi had compared him to a blue rose, and somehow that had devolved into getting "Roise" as a nickname

They all had little nicknames for eachother, little terms of endearment, things that were just their's, and this just so happened to be _their's_

"It's nothing, go back to sleep," he grumbled, refusing to meet Yugi's eyes

The smaller duelist gave a quiet sigh, his shoulders sagging as he crossed the room, gently placing a hand on the top of Seto's chair and carefully climbed up to sink into his lap, wasting no further time in wrapping his arms around the older duelist and giving him a skeptical look

"Seto, you know I don't believe you, right?"

That very notion had Seto narrowing his eyes, nose wrinkling in minor annoyance

"You know that I don't care what you do and don't believe, right?" he snipped back

Yugi didn't say anything back, he didn't roll his eyes or write off his comments, all he did was just lean forward, giving him a kiss, soft and slow, his nails gently scratching at the back of Seto's neck, traveling up higher to twirl into his hair

Ah.... that was such a weakness.....

Why did Yugi have to be this way?

"Come back to bed Rosie," the smaller duelist insisted, his expression soft as he pulled back, pressing their noses together in adoring affection

"I'm sure whatever you're working on can wait until tommorrow,"

Mm... that was so tempting...

But he had been giving into temptation for months now, he couldn't keep doing that, that was how he had gotten into this position to begin with wasn't it?

"No.... it really can't," he sighed, gently but firmly pushing his smallest boyfreind back, forcing a stern look onto his face, although in truth, it really just looked more tired than anything

"I've been putting it off for far too long and I know within reason that I won't do it tommorrow, or the next day, or the next,"

Yugi's expression pinched, confusion crossing over his face as he stared down into his bright blue eyes

"What is it? What's so important?"

"Everything," Seto replied with an exhausted sigh, closing his eyes breifly

He didn't want to see the continuation of Yugi's confusion

"I've been behind on everything for months, it started back in October, sometimes I can get ... _close_ to being caught up, other times it's just..... relentless, I can't finish anything no matter what I do,"

"October? That's...."

"When this relationship thing started? Yes, gold star, you're right,"

"Are you... saying that we're a _distraction_?"

Huh....

Seto had really expected him to be hurt or offended by that- not that he _wanted_ him to be, he just expected it- but instead, the expression Yugi gave was one of ... _amusement_

Why was he amused?

"That's exactly what I'm saying, what about that makes you think that this is an amusing matter?"

"It isn't that," Yugi corrected, shaking his head

"I mean, I hate that you're behind on your work, I know how important it is to you to be ahead of the game, although I do kind of wonder just how behind you _actually_ are but-.... I just can't believe that the three of us are distracting you, it's kind of cute,"

"It is not _cute_ ," Seto argued with an irritated huff

"Yugi, this is a serious matter, I'm constantly struggling to keep up because of the three of you!"

"And what is it that we do that's so distracting?"

... Ah... well, now that he was trying to put it into words.... he realized that he may not quite have the words he needs to explain it properly

"Everything," he finally decided, wich actually seemed to take Yugi by surprise

".... Everything?" he repeated slowly

"Everything,"

"... You're going to have to elaborate a little bit..."

"It's always something with you three! You always want something or need something, you're always sending me emails and calling me, and even when you aren't really.... DOING anything, somehow, some way, everything circles back to you anyway! I wanted to answer some emails and do you know what I ended up doing instead?"

He paused, shoving the little notepads and sticky-notes towards Yugi with an annoyed huff

The smaller duelist barely looked at them, just a quick glance, before looking back up at Seto and giving a soft smile to him

"You know you don't have to prioritize us, right? Seto, we know you're busy, we aren't going to push you to put us first, and if you need help with things like organizing and household things, maybe talk to Joey about it? I mean, he may not be the most organized person, but he's good with household stuff, and he has much more time to deal with it, so... either way, you don't have to put everything to do with us first,"

"But I _want_ to," he finally admitted, quietly, somewhat more to himself than to Yugi

"I want to, I see an email from one of you, or remember something you need from me, or ... even just try to schedule you for things or look into your work... and that's always what I want to do first, I can't ever concentrate long enough to do anything else until I tend to those things, I _want_ to prioritize you, I _like_ it,"

"Then I guess spending less time with you isn't the solution either?"

There was a time where he would have immediately said "Yes", where he would have tried to get some space between himself and his lovers, where he would have even tried to run them off just so that he wouldn't risk the vulnerability that being near them seemed to bring, but...

But those days seemed to be over

"No.... no, that isn't the solution," he confirmed with a frustrated sigh

"I ... honestly, I've had _issues_ with obsessing over you three idiots since long before October, it's just... it feels like _more_ now,"

He wasn't so stupid that he didn't recognize those years of relentlessly focusing his attention on dueling Yugi and Atem, or how much time he had spent completely dedicated to bringing Atem back from the dead wherein he did almost nothing else

This was the same thing, it just _felt_ different

"Maybe because now we're reciprocating your attention? Or because you're focusing on all three of us instead of just Atem? Or because this isn't some sort of.... action-adventure, adrenaline packed rush? It's just every day life, with every day things, nothing to get overly emotional about, so it's harder to write off excuses for why other work isn't getting done because there's no grandiose reasoning? Or hell, maybe it's a combination of all of that, and maybe even more that I haven't mentioned yet,"

......

"I really hate it when you make sense,"

"I'll keep that in mind," Yugi laughed, giving a quiet exhale and shifting in Seto's lap, facing away from him now and letting his head lean back, resting peacefully against his lover's and closing his eyes

"I know what you're going through, believe it or not, I mean.... maybe I don't have the enormous company, or the tendency to work myself into a coma, but.... the thing with suddenly having people in your life who take up all your time and not knowing how to- literally- work around that..... I get it,"

"How?" Seto asked in sheer skepticism

" _How_ do you get that?"

"Because for most of my life I didn't have any freinds? And then all of a sudden, I had _alot_ of freinds? Up until I was fifteen, I was always pretty consistent with things like homework and studying and chores, I may not have gotten the best grades, but I was really consistent about doing my work on time and completing the job, even if I wasn't necessarily good at it, I used to make time every day for practicing my dueling strategies, working on puzzles, learning new games... that sort of thing, but after I actually made _freinds_? All of a sudden, everything else was secondary, whenever Tea` called, I wanted to talk to her as much as I could, for as long as I could, whenever Joey wanted to hang out, I dropped what I was doing to go see him, and Atem?"

Yugi paused, laughing for a breif moment

"When I first started talking to Atem, and actually acknowledging him as his own person, I must have spent atleast the first two weeks holed up in my room, talking his ear off.... my grades crashed, my chores went to hell, unless another freind called or I had something that I _had_ to do like eating or taking a shower or going to school, I was very hard pressed to leave, and this wasn't Atem's fault, or my freinds', or really anyone's _'fault'_ , it wasn't like anyone was _demanding_ my attention, I just.... wanted to give it, I had people who liked me, people who I clicked with, who I enjoyed talking to and spending time with, for the first time in my life, I had more than just myself and Grandpa, I wanted to get the most of it, I _always_ wanted to get the most of it, to spend the most time with them that I could, maybe part of me was afraid that I wouldn't get the opportunity for very long, that someday I would lose them, that someday I would just go back to being lonely again, just myself and Grandpa... _again_ , but if that was part of it, it was a small part of it, mostly I just liked spending time with them, that's why they're my freinds after all, and even after I started getting back into the groove of things, even _now_ , I still prioritize the people I care about, sometimes it doesn't interfere with work, sometimes it does, and sometimes I'm so engrossed in work that I lose track of time or don't notice when one of my freinds or even one of my boyfreinds has been trying to contact me- and I _know_ that happens to you at times, so .. I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's pretty normal for you to be going through this, over time you'll figure out a way to balance things, but that isn't something I can really help you with, it's something you just have to get used to and figure out for yourself,"

As much as Seto wanted to roll his eyes and tell Yugi he was full of it.... he knew that he was right, and even though it wasn't quite the answer he wanted to hear, part of him did feel a little better knowing that this would ease with time and he would find another way of doing things- or atleast, he hoped he would

"Yeah well.... just don't start thinking that I'm going to go out 'making freinds' with all of the losers you hang around with because I _can_ , you three are FAR more than enough for me,"

"Oh don't worry, I wasn't thinking any such thing," Yugi chuckled teasingly, smiling up at his partner and leaning against his shoulder

"Think we can go back to bed? This can wait until tommorrow can't it?"

Temptation....

Once again, Seto was facing temptation

And this time, he decided.....

"Sure," he said with a nod, turning the computer off as Yugi crawled out of his lap

"It can wait until tommorrow,"


End file.
